`Doctor' Accepts Probation

Man Misrepresented Himself To Patients

Accused a second time of practicing medicine without a license, Acosta on Friday accepted five years of probation rather than go to trial.

In addition to pretending to be a doctor, working out of the bedroom of his Lake Worth home, Acosta was charged with misrepresenting himself as a physician assistant at a Red Cross shelter at Santaluces High School as Hurricane Erin threatened South Florida in August.

"This was mere harassment by the police," said Acosta, 31, before the hearing at which he pleaded guilty to three felony charges. He insisted patient records in his computer were imaginary.

He was also charged with forging several counterfeit cashier's checks on his home computer to buy more computer equipment.

Detectives determined Acosta sometimes exchanged the computer equipment he bought with bogus checks for other equipment so the fraud could not be traced easily to him, Prosecutor Robert Jaegers said.

Circuit Court Judge Howard Berman ordered Acosta to undergo a psychological evaluation and barred him from using electronic data processing equipment unless it had been inspected and permanently marked.

As part of the plea bargain, Acosta agreed he would have "no unsupervised access to computer modem equipment."A modem lets a user contact other computers anywhere in the world.

Acosta told Berman, "I do wish the court to know I am pleading guilty because it is in my best interest."

Jaegers said he was relieved with the plea - he doubted many witnesses would have shown up to testify.

Acosta, known to his patients as Dr. Yum Yum, was arrested on Aug. 17 and accused of performing illegal medical examinations, including blood and urine tests. Most of his patients were immigrants, some possibly illegal aliens, police said.

"They were the kind of people who would be there one day and gone the next," Jaegers said. "We were not confident many would show up to testify, so we decided to go to a plea bargain."

In May 1990, Lake Worth police also arrested Acosta for practicing medicine without a license after he had drained a woman's cyst and injected her with penicillin. He used a realistic prescription form and called in other prescriptions to drugstores, police records show.

After he completed probation in that case, his criminal record was expunged.

"That's not going to happen this time," Jaegers said. "He needs to learn you can't practice medicine without a license. It is a very serious matter."

Acosta told Berman he had enrolled at Palm Beach Community College as a full-time student. The judge asked him what he is studying.

"My initial interest was in the medical field, but now I think it would be a waste of time," Acosta said. "I think I'll go into either photography or computers."